Agenda
Tuesday, 16 June 2026
“Unified Experience, Operationalised Intelligence & Enabled Agentic”
Please note that 1:1 meetings will be running throughout the day.
Registration & Check-In
Welcome to the 11th Digital & AI Edge: "Unified Experience, Operationalised Intelligence & Enabled Agentic"
Jim Berry - CEO & Founder at ADAPT
Competitive advantage is seeing a shift from digital experimentation to operationalised intelligence.
ADAPT’s 11th Digital & AI Edge event will address CX and EX with a lens on Enabling Agentic. How to lead the transition from generative experimentation to autonomous execution, the critical need for unified data structures, and the demand for commercial accountability.
Digital, CX and Product leaders must move beyond simple GenAI chat to deploying autonomous “digital colleagues” that execute workflows, but this is only possible if they first build a “connected nervous system” of unified, semantic data to prevent blind spots.
ADAPT Insights: What Are the Top Performers Doing Differently?
Gabby Fredkin - Head of Analytics & Insights at ADAPT
ADAPT’s Research and Advisory team reveal data-driven insights from 1,500+ regional surveys of Heads of IT, Digital, Security and Finance – leaders driving transformation for 60% of Australia’s GDP. Benchmark your digital and AI maturity, explore investment barriers, and validate priorities against peers. Gabby distils core findings on operationalising agentic autonomy, unifying experience architecture, structuring cross-functional teams to deliver measurable commercial landings over simple feature launches.
Get an Edge: Making the Most of Your Day
Shannon Barry - Senior Community Success Manager at ADAPT
Behind the Curtains of the World’s Best AI Bank: Integrating Intelligence with Empathy
Sanjoy Sen - Group Head - Consumer Bank at DBS Bank (Singapore)
AI is everywhere – but turning experimentation into enterprise‑scale impact remains hard. Sustainable advantage will not come from chasing hype, but from scaling AI with intent, trust, and strong leadership. Drawing on DBS’ multi‑year AI journey, this session shares how the bank has moved from pilots to industrialised AI, scaled GenAI and agentic intelligence, and embedded trust‑by‑design governance – all while keeping humans firmly at the centre. Expect real use cases, practical lessons, and a clear perspective on what it takes to lead in an AI‑powered bank.
– AI at DBS is the result of a long‑term journey – GenAI accelerates the path, it doesn’t start it.
– GenAI and agentic AI are being scaled to deliver real gains in productivity, quality, and decision‑making
– Strong governance enables AI to move fast, safely, and confidently at scale.
– The real differentiator is human + AI leadership, where judgment, empathy, and accountability stay human.
The Year in AI: Meetings, Copilot, a Strategy Deck. No Result. How Leaders Can Finally Start
Dawid Naude - Founder & CEO at Pathfindr
Most leaders haven’t been standing still on AI. They’ve been moving. Meetings, workshops, Copilot licences, a strategy deck that took months. And yet, when someone asks what AI has actually changed in their organisation, the answer is uncomfortable.
This isn’t a technology problem. It’s a leadership problem.
In this session, Dawid Naude, Founder and CEO of Pathfindr and one of Australia’s most trusted AI practitioners, cuts through the noise to name what’s really getting in the way, and what it takes to finally move. Not a roadmap. Not a framework. A straight conversation about the decisions leaders need to make, the habits they need to break, and the first real steps that actually stick.
If your organisation has been busy but not moving, this one’s for you.
Morning Break
Refreshments, Snacks & Connections
Executive Panel: The Agentic Tipping Point - What We Automate Next?
Bhaskar Katta - General Manager at Westpac Memo Hayek - CIO ANZ at Zip Co Jen French - General Manager AI Acceleration at CommBank Peter Hind - Principal Research Analyst at ADAPT
Peter Hind convenes Westpac, Zip, and CBA to debate how agentic AI moves from pilots to accountable digital colleagues at scale.
– What’s accelerating in agentic AI – and what must we deliberately slow down?
– Digital colleagues aka Agents are here to stay – where is the red line? Who is responsible if there is a mistake?
– Deepfakes, vishing, phising – the AI era comes with its risks and lack of trust – how do you maintain the digital trust?
– Which outcome proves ROI for agentic AI: cost-to-serve, conversion, retention, or reduced risk?
From GenAI Experiments to Agentic Execution: Building the Trusted Data Layer for Action at Scale
Ajay Kumar - Head of MCP Services at InfoTrack
Most organisations can prototype GenAI quickly, but scaling agentic execution stalls when data is fragmented, semantics aren’t shared, and trust breaks at the boundary between internal systems and authoritative external sources.
In this session, InfoTrack shares a partner-first blueprint for building a trusted execution layer of unified meaning and governed access to authoritative data, so agents can verify, enrich, submit, and confirm actions with permissions, audit trails, and guardrails built in.
Escaping the Pilot Trap: Turning AI Ambition into Business Impact
Vijayan Seenisamy - Group Transformation Lead at Woolworths Group
Drawing on key lessons from his recent book – The Pilot Trap – Vijayan will explore why so many AI initiatives stall before they create value, and what digital, CX and product leaders must do to move from experimentation to enterprise-scale impact.
– Why do so many AI initiatives stall in pilot mode, and what separates the ones that scale?
– What leadership decisions matter most when moving from experimentation to execution?
– How do you align AI investment with measurable customer and commercial outcomes?
– What operating model changes are needed to turn isolated use cases into sustained impact?
– How should executives judge whether an AI initiative is truly delivering value?
ADAPT Executive Insight Roundtables
Attend your pre-selected roundtable to participate in a peer discussion with confidence under Chatham House Rules moderated by an ADAPT analyst with subject matter experts.
Output to Outcomes: Why the Next Wave of Digital and AI Leaders Will Win by Proving Value – Not Just Accelerating Delivery
A boardroom session moderated by an ADAPT Analyst with Planview and your peers
Digital and AI teams are under pressure to move faster than ever – but speed alone is no longer enough. As investment scrutiny rises and AI initiatives multiply, leaders must be able to connect strategy, delivery and value with far greater precision. This keynote explores how leading organisations are moving beyond activity and outputs to focus on measurable outcomes – creating the visibility and alignment needed to prioritise better, execute smarter, and turn transformation into tangible business results.
What we’ll discuss during this session:
– More output does not guarantee more value.
– AI becomes powerful when it is tied to priorities, capacity and measurable outcomes.
– The leaders who win will be those who can see, steer and prove enterprise value across the whole portfolio.
Reliable by Design: Delivering AI that Customers Can Trust
A boardroom session moderated by an ADAPT Analyst with Rafi Katanasho – APAC CTO & Solution Sales VP at Dynatrace and your peers
Maximising ROI from AI with Real-Time Digital Behaviour Intelligence
A boardroom session moderated by an ADAPT Analyst with Mark Drasutis – Head of Value, APJ at Amplitude and your peers
How digital leaders operationalise real-time signals to quantify friction, predict revenue risks, and validate AI investments.
Discussion Points
– Quantifying the immediate revenue impact of digital journey friction.
– Identifying predictive signals that flag churn before it happens.
– Bridging the gap between data insights and rapid product execution.
– Unifying qualitative and quantitative data to contextualise user behaviour.
– Measuring actual commercial lift to justify AI optimisation budgets
Powering High-Value Customer Interactions in the Age of AI
A boardroom session moderated by an ADAPT Analyst with Toby Allen – Senior Solutions Engineer, Ginny Roy – Senior Manager, Strategic Sales at Auth0 and your peers
Deploying AI and customer-facing apps is a priority, but fragmented identity stalls innovation. This roundtable explores how treating identity as a strategic asset eliminates roadblocks, balances speed with security, and turns digital touchpoints into secure, high-value business drivers.
Key Themes:
– Impactful Interactions: Driving loyalty and revenue through frictionless digital touchpoints.
– Secure AI Access: Managing access for AI agents without creating silos.
– Faster Deployment: Reusing identity rules once globally to accelerate time-to-market.
Peer Networking Seated Lunch
Join us for relaxed peer networking and great food, upstairs in the Heritage ballroom
Lunch RT | Bowtie CX: Scaling Personalisation via Enterprise Visual AI
A boardroom session moderated by an ADAPT Analyst with Canva and your peers
How CDOs leverage the bowtie framework and AI to unify siloed teams, creating seamless, data-driven customer journeys.
Discussion Points:
– Operationalising the bowtie framework to connect acquisition with retention strategies.
– Automating hyper-personalisation using centralised data and generative AI.
– Democratising high-velocity design while maintaining governance and quality at scale.
– Unifying fragmented workflows to reduce tool sprawl and operational drag.
– Translating rapid content production into measurable retention and revenue growth.
ADAPT Executive Insight Roundtables
Attend your pre-selected roundtable to participate in a peer discussion with confidence under Chatham House Rules moderated by an ADAPT analyst with subject matter experts.
From AI Ambition to AI Accountability - What's Actually Working, and What Isn't, Across the Customer Journey!
A boardroom session moderated by an ADAPT Analyst with Harry Grummitt – Senior Enterprise Account Executive at Automation Anywhere, Lee Matthews – Senior Specialist, Sales Engineering at Automation Anywhere and your peers
An honest peer-to-peer conversation amongst leaders, about where AI is actually delivering across the customer journey and where the gaps are costing you.
– Where in your customer journey does the experience fall apart, and is that because of what’s happening in the systems behind it?
– What happens when AI makes a decision your business cannot explain? (How did that happen?)
– Orchestrating … where does AI stop “processing” and where do humans “decide”?
– Understanding AI capabilities, and where can it add value?
– What is slowing us down, or stopping us from delivering the right solutions?
Scaling Digital Experience: Delivering Faster, Consistent Customer Journeys
A boardroom session moderated by an ADAPT Analyst with Dawn Henry – Head of APAC at Storyblok and your peers
As digital channels expand, many organisations are held back by legacy content systems that slow delivery, fragment experience, and limit scalability. This discussion explores how composable approaches enable faster, consistent content delivery across channels – balancing speed, flexibility, and governance.
– Where are current content systems slowing digital execution?
– How do you deliver consistent experiences across web, app, and emerging channels?
– How to enable faster time-to-market without losing control?
– How to scale content operations across teams, regions, and brands?
Gain practical approaches to accelerating digital delivery while improving consistency and customer experience at scale.
Unconstrained: Leading Your Organisation Into the AI Era
A boardroom session moderated by an ADAPT Analyst with Mark Cameron, CEO & Director at Alyve and your peers
In this interactive workshop, digital leaders explore how redesigning operating models – not just rolling out technology – unlocks continuous learning and elite AI ROI.
Discussion Points:
– Unpacking how companies like Mayo Clinic and Goldman Sachs prioritise people over tech.
– Exploring the Australian macroeconomic context to avoid the AI cost-optimisation trap.
– Solving executive misalignment to stop leaders pulling AI into fragmented directions.
– Redesigning your operating model to prioritise continuous learning and human-AI cohesion.
– Unpacking how Mayo Clinic, Goldman Sachs and Singtel prioritise people over tech.
– Mapping stakeholders to move your strategy from scarcity to unconstrained possibility.
Afternoon Break
Refreshments, Snacks & Connections
Securing the Future: Transformation Done Right
Jim Boehm - Expert Partner and Chief Digital Risk Officer at McKinsey & Company (London) David Gee - ADAPT Advisor and Influential CISO
Every Chief Digital Officer faces the same critical challenge: delivering an exceptional customer experience while ensuring innovation remains secure by design. But how do the best organisations achieve this?
In this keynote fireside chat, David Gee former CIO and CISO is joined by Jim Boehm Chief Digital Risk Officer McKinsey. Jim is a Partner at McKinsey and has a successful history in assisting their clients with strategic planning. Recently Jim took on this internal global role, as Chief Digital Risk Officer.
Join us for an exclusive conversation with Jim, who will share hard-won insights from guiding McKinsey clients through successful transformations. Learn the strategies, pitfalls, and proven approaches that separate transformative initiatives from failed projects.
This isn’t another theoretical discussion. It’s a rare opportunity to hear unfiltered perspectives from someone who’s been in the trenches, helping organisations navigate the complexities of modern digital transformation amid escalating cyber and AI threats.
Who Should Attend:
– Chief Digital Officers wanting to learn best practices
– Digital leaders driving transformation initiatives
– Emerging leaders preparing for tomorrow’s challenges
If you’re responsible for digital innovation in your organisation, this session is essential.
Dethrone the Giants: Why AI Rewards the Nimble Challenger
David Walker - (former) Group Chief Technology Officer at Westpac & DBS and Chair of the AI Council at UNSW
The organisations most likely to win the AI era are not necessarily the ones dominating your sector today. While Tier 1 incumbents are stalling under the weight of legacy, political capital, and their fears of self-disruption , nimble challengers are able to move faster, adopting deeper, and taking ground. With AI everyone is in the game. It is a readiness game. And readiness can be built – nimbleness.
Three Waypoints:
1. Scale Is Not an Advantage
2. Nimbleness Is Measurable and Buildable
3. DBS Did It. Others Are Doing It Now
Activate – Experience-led · Evidence-backed · Activation-focused
Closing Comments
Digital & AI Edge Peer Networking Drinks
An opportunity to stay, mingle and meet other attendees over drinks and food and discuss the day.